Virulent Embodiments: somatic principles in Performing Arts research

Abstract

This piece of writing highlights pathways in Practice as Research (PaR),
evoking Somatics, its principles, and methodologies as an approach to research in the
Performing Arts. The authors share their experiences within the course Somatic
Epistemologies in Artistic Research, taught by Diego Pizarro in the Graduate Program
in Performing Arts at the Federal University of Bahia (PPGAC/UFBA). In this context,
somatic practices and approaches are interrelated to the creative processes in the
Master’s degree. It is proposed that research be embodied, revealing a multifaceted,
open, and constantly expanding multimodal field, as PaR suggests in producing and
sharing counter-hegemonic knowledge. With distinct research themes, the authors
adopt somatic principles as a framework to embody words, engage with past and
present experiences, and imagine/create the future in the becoming and/in practice. The
questions posed session Opportunities that Somatics Offer Us for Research served as a
key to the development of this text, aligning with what drives both research projects.
The authors draw on alternative writing forms to anchor and bring the writing process
closer to the embodied practice.